Caster for tubular legs for furniture.



A. B. DISS. EASTER FOR TUBULAR LEGS FOR FURNITURE. APPLIOATION FILED APR. 11, 1910.

965,879. A Patented Aug. 2, 1910.

. c, Tn: NQRRIS PETERS co., WASHINIWON. D

UNITED STATES PATE T o EroE.

ALBERT B. mss, 0E NEWA K, EW J Rs AssIcNoR TO UNIVERSAL CASTER & FOUNDRY COMPANY, on NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

CASTER FOR TUBULAR LEGS FOR FURNITURE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 2, 1910.

Application filed April 11, 1910. Serial N 0. 554,774.

To all whom it may concern:

ark, New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Casters for Tubular Legs for Furniture, of which the following is a specification, illustrated by draw- 1n s.

lhe invention relates to the class of casters having pintles removably secured in a frame or means for supporting the pintle within a relatively large tubular leg which the caster is to support, and its object is to combine in an economical and durable structure a light, strong frame forcentering the pintle in the tubular leg, with means for guiding the pintle during its insertion into or out of the frame, thus preventing a very common injury to the structure due to the pintle not being placed correctly in position. This the present invention accomplishes by securing to a suitable frame a guide socket which correctly directs the pintle to its final position during insertion.

In my Patent No. 412,484, I have described a caster having a socket made of one piece of sheet metal which is suitable for legs of not much greater diameter than the pintle. In one sense this Patent No. 412,484 is modified and improved by this invention by the additional means used to correctly guide the pintle and support same, but this new invention may also be employed. independently of such prior patent.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of a caster made according to my present invention, illustrating the same in position in a tubular furniture leg, said support being represented iii-vertical section. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section taken on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 shows the blank of the spring frame before folding.

Similar reference letters indicate corresponding parts.

B represents a hollow tubular leg, C the caster roller or wheel, D the caster jaw, F the leg mount, Gr the pintle, H the pintle socket, J the spring frame, and K the legsupporting disk. Immediately surrounding the pintle G is the socket H. This may be formed of thin metal slotted at opposite sides of its upper portion, as at h. The fin gers formed by these two slots are slightly socket.

inbent so as to snap under the enlarged head of the pintle when it is thrust into place and hold it from dropping out of the socket, as

will be well understood. The socket is preferably rigidly secured to the leg-supporting disk K and the leg mount F rigid with the disk provided. This leg mount by fitting the exterior of the leg will assist in centering the socket, but it may be omitted in the broader aspects of the present invention.

It will be seen that the socket forms a guideway for causing the pintle to be thrust accurately into its position, which might not be the case if the approximately rectangular spring frame J were employed without the Moreover, the resiliency of the upper ends of the socket. co-act with the upper ends of the spring frame, as will be apparent from the following description of the spring frame.

The spring frame J is formed of a flat piece of metal shown in Fig. 3, bent to the approximately rectangular form best seen in Fig. 1. It embraces and is secured to the socket I-I, rigid at its lower portions, and presses resiliently against the spring members of the upper portion of the socket H. The vertically disposed sides of the spring frame are bowed slightly, so that when the frameis thrust into the tubular leg it is wedged or held frictionally therein by the expansive action of the frame against the interior surface of the leg.

It will be seen that the spring frame and the socket H center and support the upper end of the pintle.

Features not described in detail will be perfectly apparent to those skilled in the art, without additional explanation.

In operation it will be understood that the spring frame, leg-supporting disk, and socket may be thrust into the leg and the furniture be exposed for sale with the socket in place. This is particularly advantageous if an ornamental leg mount F is provided. The caster wheel, jaws and pintle maybe put in place only when setting up the furniture at its destination. The pintle is readily thrust into the socket, the upper ends of the socket yielding to allow the slightly larger head G to pass by them and acting to retain the pintle from dropping out accidentally. It will be seen that such structures as my prior Patent No. 412,484, if modified to fit large legs, would either lack any guiding means for inserting the pintle into place, or would lack a properly disposed frame. The present invention combines the advantages of a proper guide socket with the advantages of a properly disposed spring frame.

I do not wish to limit myself to the form the socket may assume, as it may be either of cylindrical or of shape similar to a truncated hollow cone, or otherwise, depending on the way the blank of sheet metal is cut and rounded.

Having described my invention, I desire to claim:

1. A caster for tubular legs having a legsupporting disk, a pintle, a pintle guiding and centering socket having yielding extremities for holding the pintle, and a spring frame centering said socket within the tubular leg adjacent to its respective ends and acting inward resiliently against the upper extremity of said pintle-centering socket.

I 2. A caster, combining a pintle, a leg-sup porting disk and leg mount which tends to relatively center the pintle and leg, a spring frame fitting and acting upon the interior of the leg, and a pintle socket mounted within the said frame and having resilient members that coact with resilient portions of the spring frame. a

3. A caster, combining a pintle, a spring frame fitting and acting upon the interior of the leg and havmg resilient portions that act on the pintle socket, and a pintle socket ri 'idl to ether and a sn'in frame which b b 7 b embraces the socket near the respective ends of the socket and acts resiliently outward against the tubular leg.

5. A caster for tubular legs comprising a leg-supporting disk and a pintle-guiding and supporting socket having resilient pintleholding members, and a spring frame having free ends which embrace the upper por tion of the socket on either side and a perforated bent portion which surrounds the lower part of the socket above the leg disk, the said frame acting resiliently outward against the tubular leg.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses April 8th, 1910.

ALBERT B. DISS.

Witnesses E. VAN ZANDT, E. P. LA GAY. 

